👨💻 About me
The astute reader will have noticed that I am a Lead Front End & JavaScript Developer. However, I suppose there is more to me than a job title, especially one which doesn’t really describe what I actually do.
So WTF do I actually do?
I’m not a huge fan of the terms, but most of my time is split between Front End Architecture, Front End Ops, and on a good day some actual Front End Development. Without going into a ridiculous amount of detail, I spend my time…
- Architecting front end build, test, and deployment processes.
- Creating coding standards, pattern libraries, and style guides.
- Monitoring and ensuring code quality, and best practices.
- Writing clean JavaScript, HTML & CSS.
🕰 | How my typical day pans out | |
---|---|---|
06:00 | Wake up, take medication, smoke a few cigarettes | |
06:15 | Try to workout in a vain attempt at being getting healthy | |
06:45 | Jump in the shower and ponder any current issues | |
07:00 | Get dressed in whatever I can find - never a proper shirt | |
07:30 | Leave for work and sit in traffic, listening to BBC Radio 4 | |
08:00 | Get to the office and start work * | |
13:00 | Spend my lunch break on personal projects and learning new stuff | |
14:00 | Get back to my desk and hopefully solve whatever I was working on | |
16:30 | Leave the office and sit in traffic, listening to BBC Radio 4 | |
17:00 | Get home and hopefully get in an hour of coding on personal projects | |
18:00 | Dinner time! | |
18:30 | A little TV if something good is on | |
22:00 | Read a chapter of whatever book I’m currently reading | |
23:00 | Go to sleep |
Do I do anything other than work?
Surprisingly, I do actually have a few interests outside of work.
❤️ Things I love | 🚫 Things I hate | |
---|---|---|
😂 Emojis | 🤓 Hipsters | |
🎓 Learning | 😏 False modesty | |
🌈 Open Source | 👳 ‘Guru’ developers | |
🦏 JavaScript | 🙏 Religious nonsense | |
💤 Afternoon naps | 📆 Task estimation | |
💻 My job | 👔 Dressing smart | |
🐂 Red Bull | 🐈 Cats | |
💊 Valium | ❄️ The cold | |
✍️ Tattoos | 🎉 False celebrations |
🖥 About the site
I’m constantly learning and trying out new things. This is kind of a place for me to take notes on what I’m doing, share new things I’ve found out, basically just somewhere for me to have a little brain dump every now and then.
Sometimes you might see four posts in a row. Sometimes you might not see anything for a month.
If this site is still up, it means I’m alive somewhere because the domain registrar is still collecting the payment from my bank.
📚 About my book collection
I get a bit geeky about books. I love learning from books and have a massive library of technical and programming books.
Here’s a selection of some of my favourites, most of which will have been used at some point as reference material for the posts you find here.
Whilst many of the resources here are available for free online, I would encourage you to support the authors by purchasing either the eBook or paperback versions, if you can afford it.
Introductory
- HTML & CSS
- JavaScript & jQuery
- Learning JavaScript
Beginner
- Eloquent JavaScript [Free online | Paperback]
- Pro JavaScript for Web Developers
- JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
- Understanding ES6 [Free online | Paperback]
- Practical Modern JavaScript
- The Definitive Guide to HTML5
Intermediate
- JavaScript Application Design
- Front End Architecture for Design Systems [Free trial | Paperback]
- Reliable JavaScript
- Learning JavaScript Design Patterns [Free online | Paperback]
- JavaScript Patterns
Advanced
- Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja (2nd Edition)
- Functional JavaScript
- Data Structures & Algorithms in JS
- You Don’t Know JS Collection
- Types & Grammar [Free online | Paperback]
- Scope & Closures [Free online | Paperback]
- this & Object Prototypes [Free online | Paperback]
- Async & Performance [Free online | Paperback]
- ES6 & Beyond [Free online | Paperback]
Beyond
- ECMAScript 2017 Language Specification
- High Performance Browser Networking
- Building Microservices
- Identity and Data Security for Web Development